Info refinery #14: I don't know what I am doing
Why follow processes? Is having"dessert" for breakfast the only option?
🧠 What’s on my mind
We do a lot of things every day, but do we know why we make those a certain way? For example, we might have our own way to plan our day, but would you be able to write it as a clear process? Not in an approximate way, but a clear process of steps and logic behind it.
"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." — W. Edwards Deming
I suspect that a lot of people would be surprised to realize they don’t have clarity over processes/things they do on a daily basis.
Ask yourself: Do you set time aside for reflecting on your systems? Do you document your processes and the necessary changes?
I don’t. At best I have a certain set of somehow loose rules I use on a daily basis for different purposes.
Not everybody likes checklists/processes, they think they constrain you. But I believe that is exactly their purpose, whenever you feel the constrain, revaluate it. Is there anything that needs to be changed to reflect a new piece of reality? They shouldn’t be static, they should be a dynamic evolution.
These could be Checklists for travel, the logic for planning the next day, prioritization of tasks, home cleaning checklist, etc.
Thanks, Jose you are talking to us about why is good, but yet you don’t apply this to yourself. I know. I am actually starting to write a guide to Work Clean, based on the book Work Clean, in which I am going to force myself to define methods to plan and organize my day. Then I will share my learnings with you.
🤯 What have I learned this week
Rhetorical appeals from Aristotle: Linking his ideas with writing. (link)
Minimalistic journaling: A paper, three columns, and a small slot of your time once a week is all you need to follow the "plus minus next" journaling. (link)
Optimizing for now: Temporal discounting is a survival mechanism that tries to make the most of the now, without taking into account how it will affect us in the future. Anne-Laure provides also a set of questions to avoid this happening. (link)
😮 Interesting things
68 bits of unsolicited advice: Kevin Kelly Celebrates 68 years by offering 68 advices. Some of them resonated with me, for example: "Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time." (link)
Savory mornings: A documentary maker offers recipes for multiple breakfasts around the world (Japan, Israel, Mexico) that are not sweet. When did we really start eating "dessert" for breakfast? (link)
🍴 Food for thought
“We chase what's sexy and miss what matters.
While excitement starts something, execution completes it.
While speed makes a good story, velocity makes an outcome.
While complexity makes you sound smart, focusing on the key basics matters more.
While new commands our attention, nature offers insight.”
Shane Parrish
📊 Visualization of the week
China stands out when it comes to long metro systems. (Source)
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